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When you think about it, Ghosts of the Tom Clancy variety actually have quite a lot in common with ghosts of the Casper, The Friendly persuasion. After all, I mean… you know… well, they both have “ghost” in their name. They both, uh, talk to people… Oh, and invisibility! That’s the ticket. The latest Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, however, absolutely ruins my clever analogy. And I could tell you what exactly you’ll see with death-defying feats of linguistic gymnastics, but instead, I’m opting to take full advantage of the under-appreciated art form that is comic book sound effects. So, in short, BOOM, THOCK, KABIFF, POW, ZOTT, SPLUSH, RATTA-TAT, WHAM, BAM, THANK YOU MA’AM. Dramatically dive behind the break and shout something about “tangos” to watch the full trailer.

So yes, if we’re measuring this based on valuable nuggets of childhood wisdom, the Ghosts remember the buddy system but seem to have disregarded inside voices. That said, even in Big, Loud Manshoot mode, this trailer tends to put an emphasis on positioning, drawing fire, and flanking. So here’s hoping Future Soldier continues the series’ lineage of out-thinking and then out-shooting. Also, it may be sacrilege, but I’m totally OK with those snazzy X-Ray specs. Has anyone else played Blacklight: Retribution? Its brief brand of mega-voyeurism totally alters the dynamic of matches (in a good way), so I’m all for seeing more games test it out as a central mechanic.

I’m in the beta and we’re doing 8v8 multiplayer. Looks like it will have single player and co-op as well. The gameplay is smart and tactical, although I haven’t run into any invisible people yet. Still, the amount of cheese is minimal so far. I like it and see plenty of other people who also like it. Keep an eye out.

i’m really curious about one thing–why is it that when enemies stick to chest-high walls in cover and pop out to shoot, they are vulnerable, but the PC is not?

we need an indie game with 3rd person cover, that makes enemies immune to bullets when using chest-high cover. and makes the player immune. to have them shoot each other from behind their respective cover for all eternity.

also, allow first-person crouching, to let a player sneak around the person in cover and shoot them in the back.

One of my favoured features of ME3 is that you’re often not safe IN cover. If you’re hiding behind a chest-high wall and the enemy are at a higher elevation than you then they will often get rounds over cover and into you. It usually won’t do a lot of damage, but since a knat’s fart will stop your barriers regenerating it means you have to move or kill the attackers before you can recharge. It also makes full cover a much more attractive prospect.

This helps break the usually problematic cover-shooter dynamic, being that you’re invincible and don’t have to think so long as you’ve got a box to hide behind.

Didn’t impress me at all. If I want to have big firefights I’ll play one of the dozens of generic FPS out there.

This game seems to be to the Ghost Recon franchise what Splinter Cell: Conviction was to the Splinter Cell franchise. Oversimplified, focus on action and instant-kill moves, less emphasis on stealth and tactical approach.

That’s not “stealth” in the sense that “stealth” is supposed to mean “let me be very quiet and ensure no one sees me, and I must kill everyone quietly so that their buddies don’t hear my gunfire”; it’s “stealth” in the sense that “I am magically invisible and can see through walls.” How is that smart or challenging? This is Ghost Recon in name only.

I guess using more then half a dozen different colors would have blown the budget? Plus, what’s up with the arrows pointing out all the cover positions and that freaking huge objective marker that takes up half the screen? Honestly, with so many amazing indie games coming out all the time and a big backlog it’s difficult to look at titles like this and even consider buying them, especially when you know a good portion of that money will be going to Ubisoft.

It’s like an augmented reality hud and it works. I especially like the way it draws lines between you and your teammates, helping you form a 3D picture in your head of where everyone is. It helps you sort your lines quickly and use teamwork without having to spin your head around all the time.

I’m going to go against the flow here and say this is actually starting to look rather interesting to me. Also, In-depth weapon Customisation + Co-op vs AI (is that still the main feature?) = something a bit different from standard multiplayer clones, surely?

Although I will always lament the death of games like the original Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six 3 and the like, this game does look interesting if you completely forget the original GR ever existed. However, I take issue with one particular feature in this game.

Dragon’s Breath rounds. What? Why? Do they provide any advantage whatsoever when it comes to shooting people? No. Normal buckshot will kill the absolute shit out of people at the range he’s shooting them, so why the need to crisp up their corpse? Also, calling them Dragon’s Breath instead of, say, ‘incendiary’, or ‘useless’, is a blatant cry for attention from the Call of Duty brigade. Maybe they’d have some use if you wanted to tactically start a forest fire or tactically burn a house down, but… No. Oh well.